Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable device used for permitting easier access to placing materials in a vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a portable extendable deck that when installed in a vehicle, can extend beyond the interior of said vehicle, providing an area that can be used as a work space and/or a place where materials can be placed and retrieved safely on the extended deck surface. Once materials are placed, the extendable deck slides back into the vehicle for safe transportation. The device can be used with almost any vehicle having a relatively flat cargo area including full sized vans and minivans, station wagons, pickup trucks, buses, flat bed trucks and other large trucks. The device can be used by professional and nonprofessional people throughout the world.
It can be seen that the uses of this device are numerous, consequently, the specific description noted in this application is in no way meant to limit the use of the invention to the particular field chosen for exposition of the details of the invention.
All uses of this invention and its applications can only be limited by the imagination and are therefore not provided herein. Some of the more obvious applications are described herein in the interest of providing a full and complete disclosure of the unique properties of this previously unknown general purpose article of manufacture. It is to be understood from the outset that the scope of this invention is not limited to these fields or to the specific examples of potential uses presented hereinafter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for facilitating cargo storage and transportation are old and well known in the art. When my father brought our families first VW Bus, several features were impressive, especially the amount of space inside the vehicle. Since the late 1950's, there has been a steadily growing interest among consumers for vehicles that can carry greater amounts of materials and people, while remaining relatively small and affordable. Because of this interest, station wagons and minivans are the types of vehicles that have become more and more popular with consumers.
Some of the problems associated with these vehicles have been restricted access to the rear cargo area because large bumpers, tail gates, and trailer hitches that require a person to bend and reach to place materials into the vehicle, while trying to avoid injuries to their body or damaging their clothes.
Another problem exists because any solution requires that seating within the vehicle remain unaltered for the safety concerns of passengers, therefore the solution must permit temporary installation that does not interfere or change the interior construction of the vehicle in such a manner as to create an unsafe condition when passengers are present.
Other people have tried to solve this problem by inventing the "Lift Gate/Door" common on many minivans, and inventing: "Cargo Doors" which open like conventional hinged doors. These have helped but still have not solved the problem adequately because the "Lift/Gate Door" and the "Cargo Door" don't eliminate the bumper and trailer hitch hazards or allow the cargo area to extend beyond the interior boundaries of the vehicle.
Another problem is fork lift trucks cannot get close enough to the vehicle cargo bed area because of clearance problems between the lift/gate door(s) and the fork lift. Even though one solution to this problem was building extra long forks for the fork lift, my invention permits the use of standard length forks which are much more common in today's workplace. In addition, my invention solves the other above stated problems with a simplicity and effectiveness not rivaled in the prior art.
In order to provide background information so that the invention may be completely understood and appreciated in its proper context, reference is made to a number of prior art patents and publications as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,439, issued to Adrian R. Pineda on Feb. 18, 1997, shows a truck cargo area organizer comprised of an outer frame, adjustable in width, by having telescoping transverse members; an inner smaller drawer frame, similarly adjustable in width, and dimensioned so that it can slide inside the outer frame by a tongue and groove arrangement; and several main separators or dividers, made to fit snugly each one between a pair of receiving notches inside the outer frame. The main separators are also adjustable in length, by a telescoping arrangement of their two halves, to fit within the inner frame dimensions. In addition, further smaller sub-separators or sub-dividers can be made to fit within the main separators, to further compartmentalize the whole structure. This device is mounted inside the truck body and is intended to provide an organized space within the truck body. By contrast, my invention permits the cargo area to remain within the body of the vehicle and also allows the cargo area to be extended beyond the body area of the vehicle while remaining securely attached to the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,999, issued to George Phirippidis on Nov. 28, 1995, shows a modular storage and organizing system for vehicles which includes a plurality of generally box-shaped units and a lengthwise and depth-wise expandable floor rack for restraining the units from undesired movement during vehicle operation. The box units include a main trough box unit, a hanging file box unit, a storage box unit and an auxiliary box unit. Each box-shaped unit includes a plurality of side walls having a front panel, a rear panel spaced at a distance away from the front panel, a pair of spaced apart opposed side panels which connect the front and rear panels. At least one panel of each box unit, other than the auxiliary box unit, has an unflanged top edge. The floor rack is disposed onto a floor surface of the vehicle, with the box units disposed onto the rack.
The rack unit may be supported by stationary posts, or by a plurality of selectable lockable wheel assemblies. In either configuration, the rack unit is adjustable so as to vary the height of the wagon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,175, issued to Marvin S. Towsend, shows a storage container for storing articles in the interior of an automobile includes an outer storage element and an inner storage element which are telescopically adjustable with respect to one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,731 (Knnack) shows a device that is a drawer, not a sliding deck, that is bolted onto the vehicle floor. In addition the following statement: "The skids are provided with suitable bolt openings 29 for use in securely bolting the storage unit 10 to the truck bed 11", is found in the DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Column 4, 2nd paragraph in Knnack's patent.
Of the other 14 patents listed in "Knnack" I was able to review (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,469,364; 4,370,007; 4,328,989; 4,288,134; 4,283,083; 4,215,896; 4,167,233; 4,121,876; 4,112,539; 3,973,814; 3,826,529; 3,764,048; 3,647,105; and 3,581,929) all were either bolted or welded to the vehicle, or were different devices altogether. (i.e. U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,233 is a baking pan) The other 16 patents listed in "Knnack" were not available in any databases I searched. However, as they were dated from July 1915 through July 1961, it seems unlikely that they contain any relevant information to the issue at hand.
An additional 22 patents describing devices used with vehicles (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,820,190; 5,649,731; 5,513,941; 5,127,697; 5,098,146; 5,064,335; 4,993,088; 4,950,123; 4,842,175; 4,824,158; 4,573,731; 4,305,695; 4,133,571; 3,726,422; 3,132,755; 3,006,487; 3,004,790; 2,852,303; 2,792,137; 2,788,137; 2,784,027, 2,549,018 and 2,284,419) contain language stating each device is "bolted, welded, or screwed" onto the vehicle.
In addition, all of these devices placed the "bearings" on the floor of the vehicle, on the base frame or on the sliding frame and not on both frames like my invention.
Finally, my device permits quick detachment (10 seconds or less) of the sliding deck from the basic frame while the basic frame remains secured to the vehicle. This is a significant uniqueness in my invention, permitting substantially faster and greater flexibility in cleaning, maintaining, repairing, changing, installing and removing the device, than any other similar device known at present.
The remaining 2 patents (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,469,999 and 5,603,439) are modular storage systems for vehicles and do not include a sliding deck in their construction.
If you look at patents by F. Gelli (U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,487); Chudik (U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,731); and Tognetti (U.S. Pat. No 5,649,731), you will find that all three were accepted for patent protection, even though they have a similar appearance and similar descriptions regarding the device construction, (rails, bearings, tracks, deck, beams et cetera), just as many of the other patents reviewed above, while still lacking the unique ideas and features found in my invention.
Whatever the precise merits, features and advantages of the above cited references, none of them achieve or fulfills the purposes of the portable extendable cargo deck.